Happiness Confusion

[Yzman]

So I am playing on a huge world map, marathon. I am russia, I have been taking over the whole world and I just puppet most of the states as I go along. Well I have the full order track, so I now have the half unhappiness from annexed cities policy...

I was annexing some of my puppets and my happiness if actually GOING UP BY 3 each time I annex a puppet state. Does this make any sense? And will building courthouses still be beneficial?

 

[Yzman]

I also have the forbidden palace if that matters, so my unhappiness by number of cities is zero.

 

[rune42]

Order doesn't have half unhappiness from occupied cities. Unless you meant autocracy. Order has half unhappiness from number of cities. Forbidden Palace stacks with it, reducing the number of unhappiness from number of cities to 0.

A city you founded is treated as an unoccupied city.
A puppet city is treated as an unoccupied city.
An annexed city with a courthouse is treated as an unoccupied city.

So the only thing that is treated as an occupied city is an annexed one without a courthouse. And occupied cities cause extra amounts of unhappiness.

 

[Yzman]

I have both autocracy and order, so I am getting both of those benefits.

I understand that, but how is my happiness going up everytime I annex a city?